Students were back in the Merrill School cafeteria in Raynham for lunch Friday afternoon, just one day after powerful winds blew a large chunk of the roof off.

“It hasn’t really been disruptive. The whole day has gone smoothly,” Principal Heidi Letendre said Thursday.

The damage was limited to a 50-foot section of the roof over the cafeteria.

Students ate their lunches in their classrooms Thursday and the buses were re-routed so children could enter through a side door at a safe distance from construction work, but other than that it was business as usual, she said.

Meanwhile, workers from Reliable Roofing were up on the roof making quick work of the repair to ready the cafeteria for use Friday.

Superintendent Jacqueline Forbes said Director of Grounds and Maintenance Al Baroncelli made his usual rounds between 3:30 and 4 a.m. Thursday to check on all the buildings in the district as he does in every storm. At that point, the damage had not yet occurred.

But at about 6 a.m. maintenance personnel reported a large section of the rubber roof had started to peel back and insulation was blowing around the grounds.

“The most important thing is for me to make sure the building is safe for children to go to school. I’d like to commend the town’s public safety officials for their swift actions in determining the building was safe to occupy,” Forbes said.

She said the cafeteria was not damaged. The only sign of anything unusual was some water that had leaked in through the compromised roof. Firefighters quickly placed a tarp on the stage of the cafeteria, which doubles as the school’s auditorium, so the wood floor would not be harmed. And they assisted the custodians in squeegeeing up the water.

Forbes said Raynham residents should be proud of the dedication of their firefighters, many of whom have children in the school system.

“It was a team effort,” she said.

As for the students, they loved the excitement and change of pace, eating lunch in their classrooms, Letendre said.

Not only that, but it was chicken nugget day, a favorite among students, Park and Recreation Director Liz Francis said.

“They said, ‘This is so cool.’ It was a double bonus,” said Francis, who stopped in to help out with the kindergarten wrap-around program.

The kids were also fascinated with the roof damage.

“One of them said, ‘We’ll need a really big Band-Aid’,” Francis said.

The Merrill School roof was one of three in the district already slated for replacement even before the wind damage.

Page 2 of 2 - Baroncelli said the incident had nothing to do with the roof’s pre-existing condition.

With such high winds, “It could have happened to any roof,” new or old, he said.

And Thursday’s repair does not alleviate the need for a whole new roof, he said. It just returned the roof to it’s pre-damage state.

Forbes said she does not yet have a cost estimate for the repair. It was an emergency and needed to be done, she said.

The district had applied for Massachusetts School Building Authority matching funds to replace the aging roofs at Merrill, LaLiberte Elementary School and Bridgewater Middle School.

But Forbes said she has withdrawn those “statements of interest” after the estimates for the jobs came in much higher than expected.

The district had been anticipating a combined price tag of $2 million, but instead the three together were coming in at around $8 million, she said.

One way or the other the projects will eventually have to be done, she said. The Merrill roof dates back to the 1980s and is leaky. LaLiberte’s is also leaky. Bridgewater Middle School’s isn’t leaking but is old and in need of replacement.

It’s just a question of the funding source and timeline, she said.

“We’re meeting with town officials to see if another plan can be put in place,” Forbes said.